MacDonald has been with Harvard Management since 2008, first as a senior vice president for private equity and promoted in 2012 to oversee Harvard’s investments with outside managers. He worked in private equity before joining the nation’s largest university endowment manager.

MacDonald, who played hockey at Harvard and was a member of the 1988 US Olympic team, had just taken the job running private equity for the endowment in December. In an e-mail to colleagues announcing MacDonald’s departure, Harvard Management’s managing director Andrew Wiltshire called the new post “an impressive opportunity.’’

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